Chapter 38 - Afterwards

The hardest thing in life is and will always be to say goodbye. Because no matter how often we say goodbye to someone, we never really get used to it. It means that someone we love and care about leaves our path for a while. And if you ask me, that's someonething I can never get used to. And I have had some of the hardest goodbyes ever. I said goodbye to Meliodas when he left the demons world without me. I said goodbye to Zeldris 3.000 years ago when I left the demons world without him knowing. I said goodbye to Meliodas over and over again and it never became easier. But no matter how many times I watched Meliodas die and come back, no matter how often I left him behind or how often I said goodbye to people I met on my way, no matter how often I had said goodbye to Merlin or Arthur, who were like my family for a very long time, saying goodbye never became easier. But no goodbye ever was as hard as this one.

A loud, dull noise tore me from my thoughts and when I looked up I saw a foaming beer standing in front of me. I knew who was sitting next to me immadiately without lifting my gaze some more, but I did it anyway. Bright green eyes glared at me happily, his blond hair hanging wildly on his face, on which a broad smile could be seen.

"Now don't look like that!" said Meliodas. "It's been a long time since we all came together!"

And he was right. It had been a few weeks since all of the Seven Deadly Sins and our friends, the holy knights, and even Arthur and a few others, were sitting together. It had been a few weeks since the holy war was over and the repairs slowly let the kingdom of Liones shine in its old glory. Chased peasants and villagers who had fled during the war returned to their homeland and continued their lives where they had left off. Fields were plowed again, fruit was harvested and a new everyday life had returned to everyone's life. The Seven Deadly Sins had gone their separate ways again, but this time without breaking up.

Despite her love for King, Diane had decided not to go to the fairy forest with him but to help with the repairs in the kingdom, as her strength and size were of enormous advantage.

Ban and Elaine, however, had accompanied King, so that Elaine could draw a little more strength. Her next destination was a journey through the country and later perhaps even the world.

Elizabeth had returned to the castle but stopped by the Boar Hat every day to wait for the evening.

Meliodas and I also helped with repairs near the kingdom during the day and worked with Hawk at the Boar Hat in the evening, still looking for a new cook as Ban wouldn't join us anymore.

Merlin had returned to Arthur and was doing new research, including to continue helping Escanor better control his powers while he settled in a deserted area near the kingdom.

Gowther spent his time learning how to properly handle his heart and all of the emotions. He lived in the castle for a while to come to terms with his past with Nadja. Life went on for all of us, albeit in different ways. But many weeks ago, even before we parted ways, we promised to see each other again soon.

"I never thought that roofs are your favorite place. After all, Zeldris pushed you off one" Meliodas said and climbed onto the roof of the Boar Hat to join me.

"What a lovely memory" I chuckled.

"What's going on? I thought you and Zeldris would spend the evening doing... well, let's not talk about what you two would be doing if you wouldn't be here."

I punched his arm playfully but couldn't help the smirk forming on my lips. "You may have part of your fathers power now but you're still the same idiot."

"I never said I'm going to change" he answered with the same amusement. "Now? What's bugging you?"

I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder, looking straight forward at the nearby forest, without really paying attention to it. I was still thinking about todays events and how Zeldris and Meliodas disappeared in front of my eyes. "You have no idea how relieved I am that you're back safe."

"Did you really have any doubts?" he asked me, not being very serious about it, yet his voice was all soft and caring. He then let out a sigh because he knew I wasn't in the mood for jokes and that I had been really worried about him. "I'm sorry for keeping this from you. But you wouldn't have let us go alone."

"You're very right... And I understand that you two did that to protect me. But..." I lifted my head and looked straight into his green eyes. "Meliodas, do you even have an idea how I felt when you two vanished right in front of my eyes? My whole world broke into a million pieces for a brief moment! I can't loose you!"

"What are you saying?" Meliodas said and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close into his body. "You stupid thing, you'll never loose me. We have a promise, remember?"

"I feel like you've just been brought back to us. I was so scared to never see you again. I was so scared Meliodas!"

"And you had no time to worry. I know. I know it was hard and I'm sorry. But I'd never leave your side if I wouldn't know that I'm coming back to you very soon."

I sighed and rested my head against his chest. His heartbeats helped me to calm down and I began to simply enjoy his near and his fingers that softly caressed my back to help me calm down faster.

"Isn't it kind of funny?" he asked me to break the silence.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him without moving my head. I had closed my eyes to better enjoy our time together, even though I knew that Zeldris was waiting for me in my room. But he knew when I needed some time for myself and that he couldn't always help me.

"When you first came here a few weeks ago, the very first night, we sat here, too. Isn't it kind of funny that some things end the way they began?"

"End?" I asked. "Do you mean that our time together has come to an end?"

"Not our time! Of course not. I'm not letting you go again sometime soon. But let's be honest... The Seven Deadly Sins won't be needed any longer. Things have changed and they'll soon start to live their own life. Which is good this time because we don't need to hide any longer. But the reason why you came here has come to an end. There's no more holy war."

"And no more curse laid upon you and Elizabeth. You're finally free. After 3.000 years."

"I'm finally free. After 3.000 years" he repeated silently and got lost in his own thoughts so that all we did for the next minutes was sit closely to give each other some company, finally relaxing because the Holy War was over.

"You're missing him" is all that Meliodas said when my sad expression still hadn't changed. I sighed and rested my elbrows on the table, looking at the ale that Meliodas had placed in front of me. "Oh, you miss him a lot! I have never seen you not drinking a good old Vanya ale."

Of course, Meliodas was right. It had been weeks since I saw Zeldris for the last time. A few days after the end of the war, Zeldris turned back to the demon world to start ruling it as their new king. It was the only right thing for him to do, yet I missed him a lot. It took 3.000 years to see him again and when things finally turned out fine, he left me again. That is the hardest goodbye I had to say because we were repeating it every few weeks. In the beginning, he came to see me every few days, at least once a week but this time, three weeks had passed and he still hadn't come to see me and I was missing him a lot.

"Wake up, Sunshine" I heard a soft, male voice, trying to break off my sleep. I let out a small groan, not willing to end my nap just now. For the first time since the war ended, we have had some guests at the Boar Hat, even though it were only the Holy Knights that visited us. We partied all night long. Actually, we partied way too long and until the next morning. The night wasn't short, it basically didn't exist and we all slept 'till late noon and spent the afternoon with cleaning the tavern and listening to Hawks lecture about not being able to behave.

I heard a soft chuckle from next to me and felt a pair of soft lips pressed against my forehead. "Come on, wake up" he repeated his words and I felt how he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close to his body.

"Mhhhmmm... you smell so good" I mumbled against his chest and placed a kiss on his muscles. Another time he chuckled and let his hands wander up and down my back, softly caressing it.

"Be careful what you say and do. I can't promise that I can continue to behave if you touch me like that."

"You wouldn't do something like that in your brothers tavern" I muttered, still not opening my eyes.

His hands wandered down to my hands and briefly grabbed my wrists, pushing my arms on the matress, causing me to turn from the side on my back, waking me up for good. He leaned above me, a playful look on his face that was just inches away from me. "It's not like we haven't done this before" he said and I pushed him off of me as my cheeks turned red from the memories of the special night I had shared with Zeldris. He laughed and got out of the bed, tossing me a shirt. "Get dressed, sleepy head. You're going to miss the firework."

My head shot up instantly when I finally remembered tonights party. The kingdom would throw a big party to celebrate their heroes that ended the Holy War. Zeldris had asked me to watch the fireworks the moment we found out about it to make up from letting me down thousands of years ago. Zeldris smirked and put on his new outfit that he went to get just for tonight: a black shirt with narrow red stripes, a red vest with three buttons and long black trousers.

I watched him getting changed without lifting my gaze away from him and enjoyed every little detail of his body. Every muscle and even every wound looked so sexy on him. He knew that I was watching him and enjoyed every single moment of having that affect on me. But when he was done changing, he looked even more hot in this new clothes.

Finally, Zeldris laughed and turned around to raise an eyebrow at me. "Do you wanna go to the event in your underwear? Not that I would mind" he said as I was still wearing just my panty and an old , oversized shirt that Meliodas had given me to sleep in.

"You just tossed me a simple shirt. I'm not going to wear that while you're dressed up like that!" I said and got up and turned Zeldris back around so that he was facing the wall. "Don't you dare to look!"

"Hey, I've seen it all before!" Zeldris complained but didn't dare to move. I picked out an outfit that I had gotten just a few days ago as well when Diane, Elizabeth and I went shopping. It was a tight black and dark purple outfit.

When I was done changing, I wrapped my arms around Zeldris' chest from behind him and rested my chin on his shoulder. "Just let me brush my hair before we head out, okay?" I said softly. Zeldris placed his hands on mine and softly grabbed them and loosened my grip and moved them aside until they were next to his body. He then turned me around and looked at my new outfit.

"No matter what outfit you wear, you look so stunning in it! I'm so in love with you."

♦♦♦

It was already dark outside and the firework would start soon, when I hugged Meliodas goodbye for tonight and turned around to look for Zeldris. He stood a few feet away and waited for me and I could see how tensed up his whole body was as he wasn't feeling very comfortable in the middle of the kingdom. But he tried his best for me without that I even asked him for it.

"Is everything alright?" he asked when I had reached him. I nodded and grabbed his hand.

"Let's leave this place" I said and already dragged him away from all the people. "I know where we can watch the fireworks."

I dragged Zeldris further away from the castle, to the nearby church and pointed to the roof. We both spread our wings and flew up to the top from where we had a great view over the entire kingdom. We sat down and Zeldris leaned his head against my shoulder. "Thank you" he said quietly whilst I felt him relax next to me.

I grabbed his hand and intertwined our fingers. "I'm really happy you're going to see the firework with me but you wouldn't have to celebrate in the middle of everyone. I know it's a lot for you."

"I think I've let you down too many times. Let me make it up to you."

"You're here with me and wear something suit-alike. That's more than I could ever wish for" I answered him and for a while, we enjoyed the silence around us before we heared something thunder-like. Zeldris winced at the unknown sound and I chuckled before colorful lightrain lights up the sky. "That's the firework, Zeldris!" I exclaimed excitedly and full of joy, pointing to the sky where more and more lights light up the dark sky. "Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it... amazing?"

"It is beautiful" he said in awe. I lifted my gaze from the sky and watched him watching the firework in awe whilst his eyes light up as if they were their own firework and I couldn't be more happy about tonight.

"I'm sorry Meliodas. I think I'm not in the mood for a party tonight" I said when I thought back to that special night.

"Just take a sip of your drink already. It'll cheer you up" Meliodas said and furrowed his eyebrows. Then, he placed one of his hands on mine. "Try to enjoy tonight, Yami. We're not coming together like this again for a very long time."

I lifted my head and looked up at a few friends. Diane was sitting at the bar and laughed about something that Ban must've said. Arthur was sitting next to her and was laughing as well. King sat at a table nearby together with Gowther and his cheeks have turned red as he still wasn't used to drinking and probably had one ale too much already. I was happy to see my friends in such a good mood and there was nothing I wanted to do more than having a good time with them but my heart was aching to see Zeldris again and I just couldn't cheer myself up. I sighed, turned back around and emptied half of my ale with one sip and whiped away the foam with the back of my hand. "I'm sorry, Meliodas. I'll try my best but I miss him so much! I know it's just been a few weeks but my heart aches so much. I miss him desperatly and it hurts me not to know when he'll come back to see me. I love him with all my heart and feel imcomplete without him."

"Say that again" I heard a male voice from behind and immediately recognized who it was. My head shot around and I could see Meliodas smirking bridely as he stood up from his seat, leaving it for Zeldris. I swung my arms around his neck the second he sat down next to me and burried my head in his neck.

"You're here!" I breathed out and still couldn't believe that I was holding him in my arms. He wrapped his arms around me as well and pulled me onto his lap, placing a kiss on my hair.

"I'm sorry, I didn't make it earlier" he said softly and began to stroke my back and my arm with his hand, slowly letting his fingers wander down my body, drawing small circles on them.

"Hey, once you two are done being so cheesy that I want to throw up, don't mind to joyn our party, alright?" Meliodas said boldly and went away giggling about his own joke right before I could give him an angry glare.

"Your brother is an idiot" I said and finally lifted my head to kiss Zeldris.

"I know" he answered with a playful grin on his face.

3009 words.

A/N: the past tense is on purpose :)